Bulger link seen in motion for retrial in Lowell man's conviction for 1972 murder

CONCORD, N.H. -- A key piece of evidence that sent Robert Breest to prison for the past four decades for a murder he says he didn't commit was the testimony of a jailhouse snitch with ties to James "Whitey" Bulger's gang, according to court documents.

David Carita, who would later turn on Bulger associate Vincent Flemmi in a murder case that led to Flemmi's conviction, was in the Middlesex County House of Correction in Billerica in April 1972 when he met Breest, who had just been arrested for the murder of Susan Randall, of Manchester, N.H., Breest's attorney, Ian Dumain, wrote in court documents.

In a deal that would allow Carita to serve his time in New Hampshire under an assumed name and away from the Bulger gang's reach, Carita testified at Breest's 1972 trial that Breest, a Lowell resident, confessed to him that he killed Randall, Dumain wrote.

Carita testified that Breest admitted to the murder, adding that Breest said there was "nobody around when he did it."

In his motion for a new trial, Dumain said Carita's testimony is contradicted by recent and more advanced DNA testing of the scrapings under Randall's fingernails.

Dumain argues that just before Randall's 1971 death, she was in a violent struggle with two men -- a man who was not Breest and a man who may or may not have been Breest -- which contradicts prosecutors' theory, based on Carita's testimony, that there was only one assailant, Dumain argues.

If such DNA results had been presented at trial, it would have created reasonable doubt for a jury, Dumain argues in court documents.

Advertisement

A judge has yet to rule on Dumain's motion.

There is no way to question Carita about this testimony because he was killed on Sept. 2, 1975, when he entered a private camp and pointed a .38-caliber gun at the four occupants, one of whom picked up a shotgun and killed Carita. He was 31.

"While Carita died in 1975, Breest has all the while been living with the consequences of Carita's testimony," Dumain wrote in his motion on Breest's behalf for a new trial.

Dumain argues that the new DNA test results would probably change the outcome in a new trial because they refute the central detail of Carita's testimony -- that Breest confessed to murdering Randall with nobody around.

The New Hampshire State Attorney's Office recently responded in court documents that Breest should not be granted a new trial based on a legal technicality as well as witness statements and forensic evidence.

In his filing, Assistant Attorney General Henry R. Klementowicz argues that a fifth round of DNA testing of material found under Susan Randall's fingernails was done by the state as part of a settlement of a lawsuit Breest brought against the state. That settlement was not part of a statute that would trigger a new trial.

The state Attorney General's Office adds that during Breest's 1972 trial, witnesses testified that someone fitting Breest's description picked up Randall as she was hitchhiking in front of the Chicken House restaurant in Manchester. Several other witnesses place Breest in the area on the evening of Feb. 27, 1971, and the following morning.

Randall was working two jobs with the dream of attending fashion-design school when she went out for pizza with a friend on the night of Feb. 28, 1971. She was last seen around midnight as she began walking home. Witnesses reported they saw a woman who resembled Randall getting into a white car before she disappeared.

Her partially nude and badly beaten body was discovered several days later on the ice under the Merrimack River Bridge in Concord, N.H. Police believe her body had been tossed off the bridge.

During Breest's 1973 trial, prosecutors argued that Breest would go looking for "dates" with high-school girls and crossed paths with Randall one night.

During the trial, a forensic examiner testified that scientific evidence led him to conclude "with a high degree of probability" that there was contact between Randall's coat and Breest's car.

Carita's testimony was the final nail in the coffin.

Dumain argues that in the six years before Carita's testimony in the Breest trial, Carita pleaded guilty to manslaughter, assault and battery of a prison guard, and two counts of assault with intent to murder.

Dumain wrote that Carita's credibility was severely lacking at the time of Breest's trial.

A sixth-grade dropout, Carita was in and out of juvenile court before eventually working for Vincent Flemmi and Stephen "The Rifleman'' Flemmi.

While serving time at what was then MCI-Walpole in the late 1960s, Carita allegedly began a rewarding career as a snitch, testifying against Flemmi, which led to Flemmi's conviction. Carita was labeled a "rat" and needed a change of scenery.

Welcome to your discussion forum: Sign in with a Disqus account or your social networking account for your comment to be posted immediately, provided it meets the guidelines. (READ HOW.)
Comments made here are the sole responsibility of the person posting them; these comments do not reflect the opinion of The Sun. So keep it civil.